God Is Sovereign
Read: Psalm 33:6-22 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (v. 11) In Disney’s animated film The Lion King, Mufasa—the great king of the lions—tells his son, Simba, that “everything the light touches is our kingdom.” Simba is impressed by the vast area over which his father […]
Iranian Church
Last year as COVID-19 was sweeping the world, Sepideh, a newly-divorced Iranian woman, found herself forced to move back in with her parents. Lonely and discouraged, Sepideh was glad for the chance to reconnect with an old college roommate who had some hopeful news to share. Sepideh is one of millions of Iranians who want […]
God Has All Power
Read: Jeremiah 10:6-16 No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. (v. 6 NIV) Power is one of those words that can mean different things, depending on its use. We can think of power as physical strength or force. We can define it as authority—the right to […]
God Knows Everything
Read: Psalm 139:13-24 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (v. 17) Like most Americans, I love my smart phone! I have questions, and it has answers. I can ask for movie times, driving directions—even a recipe—and up pops the information on my screen. It’s like […]
God Is Everywhere
Read: Psalm 139:1-12 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? (v. 7) I was a very young Christian—sad, alone and scared in a big new school. I walked through crowded hallways, a tiny sixth grader in a school where everyone else seemed older, taller, and more popular than […]
God’s Glorious Holiness
Read: Psalm 99 Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he! (v. 5) We often think of holiness as “the absence of sin,” but when we speak of God’s holiness, we see it as so much more. Theologian Wayne Grudem writes that God’s holiness includes “both separation from evil and devotion […]
God Is Eternal
Read: Psalm 90 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (v. 2) The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us all of the precarious nature of human existence. We discovered how quickly everything can change in our daily lives. We realized […]
God is Incomparable
Read: Isaiah 40:18-31
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. (v. 25)
“That’s apples to oranges!” we say when two things that are essentially different are being compared. It’s an interesting idiom; actually, apples and oranges have lots of things in common. They are both fruit, they both grow on trees, and they are both delicious and nutritious. It’s not like comparing apples to Rottweilers—or Sherman tanks!
God is Unique
Read: Isaiah 40:6-17
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? (v. 13)
It is human nature to try and “humanize” God; we seek to understand him by bringing him down to our level. Sometimes we refer to God as “the man upstairs,” or make jokes at his expense. Sometimes we accuse him of being unfair or unkind and demand an explanation for his actions. Our minds may picture him as a kindly old grandfather or an uncaring bureaucrat. In other words, we seek to make God in our own image.